We’ve had a lot of ups and downs in temperature this spring. Warm weather at the beginning of April popped open a lot of the early woodland ephemera, but by the time I began my annual pilgrimages towards the end of the month when it turned cold again, many of my favorites were long gone. Still, the Trillium were at their peak, and lots of other lovelies blooming so I made another trek a week later to enjoy them all over again..

You can see how much the leaves on the trees have popped after only one week. The first hike was on the Kal-Haven Trail, the 2nd was at the Nature Center.

All that was left of the sharped-lobed hepatica (Anemone acutiloba), bloodroot (Sanguinariacanadensis) and trout lily (Erythronium americanum) were their leaves. The flowers were done. Even though they were finished, I managed to see lots of others on the trail.

Blue-Eyed Mary (Collinsia verna) were looking lovely. They are listed as a threatened wildflower in Michigan however they seem to be thriving at our local Nature Center.

Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). I didn’t find many blooming along the trail, as they are almost done for the season. However, there was a bumper crop of

Squirrel Corn (dicentra canadensis) in very large patches. The 2 dicentra species are related to each other. Botanists used to think that the garden variety of bleeding heart also shared the same DNA, but they recently decided that though they are loosely related, the DNA is different. So what used to be Dicentra spectabilis blooming in the gardenis now known as Lamprocapnos spectabile.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) is almost done as well, but I did find a few clumps here and there. I recently discovered another common name for this delicate pink flower: “fairy spud”. Somehow it doesn’t have the same ring as “spring beauty”.

Clockwise starting at the top I saw woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata laphamii), cutleaf toothwort (Dentaria laciniata), large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) and blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) in full bloom all over the hillsides along the trail despite the cold rainy weather.

False rue anemone (Enemion biternatum) were everywhere and looking lovely. I didn’t really see the regular rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) but unless you know what to look for, they are difficult to tell apart.

The difference between the two species are

1. false rue anemone has 5 petals while the regular rue anemone can have up to 10 flower petals and